The Role of Individual Beliefs for Corporate Sustainability Transformations
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 28.02.2025.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Individual Beliefs for Corporate Sustainability Transformations
AU - Buhr, Maike
AU - Weissbrod, Ilka
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2025/2/28
Y1 - 2025/2/28
N2 - This study finds that a classification system of beliefs—action logics—is suitable to understand the beliefs held by sustainability managers. Beliefs underpin individual behavior and can substantially influence how businesses behave. We present what beliefs are held by corporate sustainability managers through a qualitative research design. We show how individual beliefs, as building blocks of individual behavior, are linked to the implementation challenges related to corporate goals and processes that must be addressed to move beyond business-as-usual with corporate sustainability transformation. Our study finds that the advanced action logics of Strategist and Alchemist are most suitable for effecting a corporate sustainability transformation. Enablers for individuals to be more ethical and effective sustainability managers are proposed, with the view to encourage the action logics of the Strategist and the Alchemist at the organizational and individual manager level and to speed up the implementation of corporate sustainability transformation activities. The enablers are the comprehensive integration of sustainability into the core business, creating safe corporate spaces for experimentation and reflection, encouraging new forms of collaboration within and outside the business.
AB - This study finds that a classification system of beliefs—action logics—is suitable to understand the beliefs held by sustainability managers. Beliefs underpin individual behavior and can substantially influence how businesses behave. We present what beliefs are held by corporate sustainability managers through a qualitative research design. We show how individual beliefs, as building blocks of individual behavior, are linked to the implementation challenges related to corporate goals and processes that must be addressed to move beyond business-as-usual with corporate sustainability transformation. Our study finds that the advanced action logics of Strategist and Alchemist are most suitable for effecting a corporate sustainability transformation. Enablers for individuals to be more ethical and effective sustainability managers are proposed, with the view to encourage the action logics of the Strategist and the Alchemist at the organizational and individual manager level and to speed up the implementation of corporate sustainability transformation activities. The enablers are the comprehensive integration of sustainability into the core business, creating safe corporate spaces for experimentation and reflection, encouraging new forms of collaboration within and outside the business.
KW - beliefs
KW - business transformation
KW - change agents
KW - inner development goals
KW - personal development
KW - sustainability transformation
KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85219632195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/beer.12783
DO - 10.1111/beer.12783
M3 - Journal articles
JO - Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility
JF - Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility
SN - 2694-6416
ER -